Crumbling beauty

The town of Antigua has an undeniable charm and atmosphere. 

The cobbled streets and grand old buildings, some crumbling ruins, some freshly renovated and converted into fancy restaurants or tourist shops are absolutely lovely. Patina is here with a capital P! 

You can see why it is known as the tourist capital of Guatemala. But... God only knows what it would be like if it didn't have its well earned Unesco Heritage badge protecting it. Over the centuries it's been ravaged by earthquakes but now the building literally shake every minute or so as the Chicken Buses thunder up the narrow streets, belching their carcinogenic filth into the air. 

Beggars are abound, small children work 18 hour days selling traditional tourist handicraft (such as Minions) at the bargain price of 4 for a fiver.

We scored a cheap lunch, lured in by the tacky 'Jive Bunny' style Christmas carols a la Central America Muzak styley, it was too good to resist. As was a bit of 'bus porn'

We took in a roof top beer for a non existent sunset 

then rounded off the day in one of the most surreal eateries (I can't bring myself to say restaurant) I've ever been in. We were served traditional chicken stew by a toothless Nona who (according to our fellow diner who looked a bit like a prostitute) had been serving the same dish for the last 61 years. The bare wire electrics lead to the (you guessed it) single bare ceiling light that gloomily lit a myriad of paintings of the pope, Jesus and any other religious figure who all solemnly looked down on us as we tried to conceal our nervous sniggering. 

We leave tomorrow at 6.30am....